episode_0015

“Messenger!!! Messenger!!!”

Among the messengers who rode on horseback, the leader shouted at the top of his voice. A letter was tied to his waist. The messenger put down the bound letter and collapsed on the spot. The soldier tried to wake up the messenger, but the messenger had already lost consciousness.

Lee Si-hyeon immediately opened the seal on the envelope. A magical light began to shine brightly and the letter paper inside began to come out. Lee Si-hyeon accepted the letter and read the letter with a serious expression.

The contents of the letter were as follows. The story was that the northern nomad Rekjit was coming down with 25,000 soldiers, and that the speed was so fast that the border had already been devastated.

They have captured several small castles on the northern border, and are targeting the relatively large castle of Laleir. If things continued like this, Lareire Castle would fall, so it was requested to bring the soldiers up quickly.

“Rekjit… ”

After all, the opponent is Recgit. Rekjit is a crazy fighting race that is weak in siege and defense, but strongest in field battles. Moreover, the Northern Army is now divided into two factions. In a state of internal strife, we must go to war against a strong enemy.

“Can I win?”

There was a system of internal strife in the game as well. It was a system where units sometimes did not listen to what was said. And the internal strife system sometimes resulted in fatal losses in equal fights. In reality, more would be more, never less.

“It would be better to abandon the castles in the north and build a castle in the south… ”

I thought about that for a moment, then shook my head. Certainly, strategically, such a decision is possible. But from a political perspective, it is nothing more than an act of suicide.

That was because the second-in-command was just waiting for my failure, and the moment I gave up even a little bit of territory, he would use that as an excuse to attack me like crazy.

“We cannot make the decision to give up territory in the north and block it in the south. Strategically it’s possible, but politically it’s suicidal. In the worst case, I could end up dying while saving the empire. It’s back and forth. I live first, then the empire. then… ”

You have to fight. That’s the answer. We must fight and win somehow. This army is experiencing internal strife.

—–

The standing army of the Northern Territory is 50,000 men. The past record was that if you add the troops that can be mobilized in a hurry in the event of a defensive battle, the number rises to approximately 200,000.

However, as we saw the previous day, although there are about half of them, they are only a few arrow rests. Extras to fill the number of people who do not receive proper training. And the conclusion is that going to war with such extras would only hinder rather than help.

Therefore, out of the 50,000, it was decided to move with only 30,000 who were identified as capable of fighting. I led 30,000 people and headed to Lareire Castle to request reinforcements. It was not usually difficult to suddenly prepare food for 30,000 people and weapons to use.

Although it took time, there was no problem with speed because the expeditionary force suffered more from supply difficulties. We were able to arrive at Lareir Castle before the Rekjit army dropped Lareir Castle.

When the Rekjit army saw that the friendly forces were moving north, they left only 5,000 troops around the castle to maintain a minimal siege, while the remaining 20,000 troops fought the friendly forces in a place called Lareir Plain.

30,000 friendly troops and 20,000 enemy troops faced off on the plain. First, our army sent a diplomat to the Rekjit army.

If the two armies fought here, there would be heavy casualties on both sides, so a letter was sent saying that it would be better to end the fruitless war and withdraw. And the diplomat returned only with his head.

It was battlefield etiquette not to kill diplomats. Only then will we send diplomats next time. However, among the Rekjit army, there were generals who sometimes left because they could not learn etiquette, and this general seemed to be just that type.

The soldiers were angry, and all that was left was war.

“Sergeant Lao.”

“Yes.”

This time, I called a scout officer from the northern bandits who I had brought into my faction.

“I will give you 50 cavalry, so you can check the enemy’s positions. Sergeant Andre.”

“Yep!”

He had a good physique and was good at fighting, so he was thought to be the perfect warrior guard.

“Stick close to me and suppress the enemies who try to attack me.”

“It is an honor to be able to protect you, Commander!”

“Ensign Mario.”

“Yes.”

“The order I gave earlier was… You remember, right?”

“Of course.”

Ensign Mario had personally given orders when no one was around. Perhaps Ensign Mario received the most important order among these. The other two are commands using the body, but Ensign Mario must now carry out commands using the head.

“Then, we will carry out our mission from now on. I wish you all good luck.”

“Yes!”

Officers began to disperse in different directions.

—–

Meanwhile, Ispantar, the commander of the Rekhgit army, could not hide his excitement about the upcoming war. He liked war. It was okay to say I loved you.

As a child, Isphantar was nothing. A child with no property and working as someone else’s servant. That was Ispantar.

But luckily he had talent. His eyes saw something that others could not see. It was a sword. The sword that others could not even avoid seemed like slow motion to Isphantar.

It didn’t take long for his talent to shine through. This is because in the battle he participated in as a single soldier, he was cut down on ten pieces of supply and demand. From then on, he repeatedly rose through the ranks, becoming a general in his 30s and a commander leading an army in his 40s.

He knew. Power is the element that takes precedence over everything in this world, and war is power, honor, and women. That it is a means to get everything you want. So…

“Warriors!!!!!!”

At Isphantar’s cry, his men shouted. Isphantar had warriors with the same values as himself as subordinates. Everyone here was a hero like himself!

“The Empire guys have too much of a weak topic! Warm land! Fertile farmland! Women with soft skin!”

“Hahaha!”

“And from today, it’s all yours! Charge aaa!!!”

At Isphantar’s shout, the warriors laughed out loud and started running. Isphantar had decided to take everything from the imperial people! As Ispantar and the surrounding cavalry rushed in, thousands of cavalry followed, followed by more than 10,000 infantry.

However, it wasn’t that there was no worry at all. It is said that there are ‘those people’ in the northern region. That was a sworn soldier. The sworn soldiers, who lived completely ascetic lives, had a reputation as monstrous people who had no family, religion, or women and were driven only by loyalty to the empire. Of course, it was Isphantar’s calculation that no matter how great the sworn soldiers were, he could destroy them. The moment Isphantar thought so, he made up his mind to defeat the pledge soldiers.

“Huh?”

Isphantar could not hide his wonder.

“Where did the pledge soldiers go?”

This is because the sworn soldiers, known as the greatest rebels, were not visible.

—–

Meanwhile, Might, the leader of the sworn soldiers, was leisurely enjoying a game of dice at the rear of the formation.

Arrows were flying in front and the sound of swords on both sides clashing could be heard, but Might didn’t care. I thought it was someone else’s business anyway.

“That damn commander bastard. I’ll show you what happens when an outsider fucks me.”

Might ground his teeth as he thought of Commander Georges Breastmire, that is, Lee Si-hyeon, and the soldiers of the oath-filled soldiers chuckled at the sight.

“By the way, leader, are you okay?”

“What?”

“Running away from the enemy is the death penalty. Not participating in battle is the same as running away, so aren’t we going to end up hanging like this?”

Then Might started laughing out loud.

“I don’t know! We are guarding the rear under orders from Deputy Commander Bernitz. You don’t know, right? The enemy might attack from behind.”

“That’s not wrong! Hahaha!”

Of course, there was virtually no possibility of the enemy actually attacking from the rear. This was because the enemy was at the front and the flanks were blocked by mountains and hills. In order to return to the rear, you had to make a very large turn, and there was no way you wouldn’t be spotted by our scouts if you made that big of a turn.

In short, Might was planning to boycott this battle. With the thought, ‘Let’s see if everything goes well without me.’ And the pledged soldiers were watching with interest to see what the outcome of the battle between the leader of the pledged troops and the commander of the Northern Army would be.